A visit to Ironwood Ridge High School

I was the guest speaker at a class today at Ironwood Ridge High School in Oro Valley.  I spoke for almost an hour about my career and what we do on the show and at the TV station.

I don't do a lot of speaking engagements (I find it difficult to squeeze them into my schedule) but I do the occasional career day at a middle school or high school, and I have been the guest speaker at several different university classes. I primarily do them because I find it fascinating that I'm asked when I was a terrible student in high school (I had a 2.5 GPA) and only went to college for one semester (and failed every class I had). It's amazing that they let someone as stupid and uneducated as I am in the door.

It's kind of weird to stand up in front of a group of strangers and talk about myself for an extended period of time. I think other people are far more interesting than I am. I don't get nervous, but I do find it a little uncomfortable to make the assumption that anyone would give a rat's ass about the work I do or about my life and hearing about it for an hour. In my daily routine, I tend to focus on what I haven't accomplished and think very little about what I have. I think it is a bit presumptuous that anyone would care or have interest in what I'm about.

The experience was fine. The students were very polite and miraculously I didn't put them to sleep.

I found it interesting that even though Ironwood Ridge isn't an old high school, that it wasn't more computerized. I made the assumption that all of the kids would be walking around with iPads and laptops and that it wouldn't be much like my high school experience was. Things haven't changed that much in 30 years (that's how long ago I graduated, there's a hint at my age). I found it exciting that hanging next to the classroom door was a hand crank pencil sharpener... the exact same type we had at my high school in Nebraska.

I didn't check under any desks but I'll bet there was gum stuck there.

I asked for a picture with the kids in the class but the school administration wouldn't allow me to post it publicly or put it on the TV show. So, I took a picture of the outside. It's a gamble to post this but I'm pretty confident I won't get sued.

Ironwood Ridge High School
looking through my car window
as I was leaving.

Let me show you my Kracker Nuts

Last night was our usual dinner and grocery shopping Sunday extravaganza.

Our lives feel a bit disrupted at the moment with all of our spare time being devoted to gearing up to move to the house. But, we still got our usual routine squeezed in this weekend even though we spent a bunch of time at Sam Levitz Furniture attempting to figure out what to do about our furniture deficiencies for a large house (large compared to our apartment, anyway).

Dinner was at Culver's at Broadway and Prudence. I had a Cheddar Bacon Butter Burger, Anthony had a chicken sandwich (I think). He ordered one of their Concrete ice cream-esque Mixers that looked like it had poo swirled into it.

As I usually do, when we went to Walmart Market at Broadway and Camino Seco, I took a few product photos. Did you know that Dora The Explorer has cereal? And, the little shapes the cereal is in do not look like Dora at all? It's amazing what one can learn at the grocery store.

75 was our order number at Culver's.
It's also Anthony's age.

Cheddar Bacon Butter Burger and fries for Ken

Chicken sandwich for Anthony

Concrete Mixer with poo swirled in.
Or fudge.
My bet is on poo.

A snack named after my genitals.
And, they're bursting with flavor.

Dora The Explorer cereal.
Those little pieces of cereal look
like stars, not like Dora.
What a rip off.

The last box of Entenmann's pumpkin donuts
left on the shelf.
They're probably making room for
Christmas donuts already.

Caramel apple pretzels.
This was a bit confusing because
normally if I found a green
pretzel, I'd think it was moldy.

Glade frosted cookie party spray.
A delicious new way to try and mask
the smell of my bathroom activities.

That's Anthony in the green shirt
waaaaay down this aisle desperately
searching for the perfect bag of chips.

People Magazine's November 3, 2014
issue that proudly proclaims it's covering
Ebola in America.
If it's in People, it must be news.

A few missing letters at CVS

Anthony and I paid a visit to the CVS at Broadway and Prudence on Sunday night. He had to exchange a couple of folders he bought there for a different type.

I noticed the sign outside was missing some letters. It's like the outside of the building became a Wheel Of Fortune puzzle.

This is convenient: Pick up your prescription at their dive thr.

CVS at Broadway and Prudence.
They want to see your rivers icense
before you can buy any iquor.

Furniture shopping is hard work

Anthony and I decided to go browsing for furniture this weekend for the house we're moving to. It turned into a two day affair.

My original mission was to look for a small dining table and chairs. Typically, I'd go searching on Craigslist or ask around for used stuff people are selling and deal with whatever random thing I could find. I have a small budget for this move so I decided making a trip to the Sam Levitz furniture store to see if they had anything decent and affordable in their clearance center was worth the time.

Anthony's put the pressure on for years that we get a new bed. I've resisted because beds are expensive. That morphed into applying for credit at Sam Levitz since they were offering zero interest for 36 months, and we ended up purchasing a mattress with some kind of fancy funky king sized cool gel mattress, a dining set, and a full bedroom set of furniture. My wallet is screaming in agony, but I suppose at some point I should pony up and buy a few nice new things and at least I can stretch the payments out until sometime into my 70's.

I've only slept on a bed that large (king size) in a hotel, and since I have rarely travelled in my life it has basically been never. I'm 6'2" tall, and have always adapted by curling up in some manner in the beds I've owned because if I stretch out with my legs straight on most beds my feet and some of my legs hang off the end of the bed. It will be an odd experience attempting to get used to it.

The furniture is scheduled for delivery at the end of this week. We'll still have a bunch of stuff to move before we actually stay at the house so the new bed experience is still probably a couple of weeks away.

Shopping for a bed is exhausting. I need a nap.

Checking out a bunk bed at Sam Levitz Furniture.
I was unsuccessful at convincing Anthony
that we should buy this.
I've always wanted one though.

We didn't buy this couch.
But furniture is fun to sit on
at the furniture store.

This is the bedroom set we picked out.
The bed will be larger and we're
getting one additional night stand.
The fake TV on the chest in the corner
and the lamps were not included.

We ate dinner at Carl's Jr. on Saturday
after day one of furniture shopping.
My shopping partner
didn't want his picture taken.

Crispy burritos at Carl's Jr.
I was so hungry after furniture shopping
that I would have eaten the cardboard box.

Anthony's crispy burrito went swimming
in his guacamole.
I'd call it attempting suicide but there
wasn't enough guacamole left to drown in.

Beware of the dog

Second visit to the house I'm moving to, and I noticed this sign on one of the backyard gates:

"Beware Of The Dog". It was an obvious attempt to scare away intruders with a non-existent dog.

Once we get moved in, our ferocious beast of a dog Lucky has no idea what he has to live up to. Maybe he'll see the sign and realize he has to bark at something to scare away intruders. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Beware Of The Dog.
I may have to install a speaker with a fake
soundtrack of barking and growling.

Get ready, get set, move

Anthony and I are getting the move to the house near Grant and Swan underway this weekend. His mom is renting us the house and she's bringing us the keys tomorrow.

I did a mental count and I believe this is the 24th place I've moved to in my lifetime. Houses, apartments, condos. I've always rented, who knows if I'll ever own a place. Each one has a unique set of memories and experiences.

I've occasionally bitched about things related to living at this apartment in Ridgepointe, but the experience has been pretty good for the most part. The management here is cool, the architecture unique for Tucson, and most of my neighbors have been nice people.

The biggest challenge living here is that we've realized even though it's two bedrooms and one functions as an office, it's a little small for our situation. As we've acquired more stuff, the limitation of little storage have become a growing challenge. Noise has been a factor with a couple of the neighbors. The apartment is in the middle of the complex and far away from the parking lot, which creates an issue carrying anything in or out (it's quite a distance). It's quite a hike just to take out the garbage.

There are other inconveniences. The air conditioning/heating unit is noisy. The freezer decides to stop freezing and pumps warm air into the freezer several times a day. The carpeting has slowly been disintegrating into a mysterious powdery substance since the day we moved in. Every faucet has a drip.

I suppose it was time to get a house. I have been concerned about managing the cost of a house. They are always more expensive than an apartment and difficult to control expenses with. It costs more to heat, cool, and power more square footage. But, the rent at the home we're moving to is several hundred dollars less than the apartment so I should be okay.

I'm not looking forward to the labor of moving. I'll have muscle soreness for days. But I refuse to pay a moving company the kind of money they charge when I am still physically capable of doing it myself. It's a self inflicted painful reminder than I own too much crap.

I also look at it as the end of an era. This is the first place Anthony and I lived at together. A lot of life events happened in the time we've lived here. This is the only place Lucky has ever lived with us as his doggy daddies, I made the move to TV in my career, I purchased my first DSLR camera living here, acquired my first flat screen TV, this is the only place all my current pairs of shoes has ever lived. Anthony changed jobs several times, nearly died from internal bleeding, watched many hours of Real Housewives and Vanderpump Rules.

There will be a new set of unique and interesting experiences that will occur at the new place. I'm hoping they'll be epic. It'll give me material to write in this blog and opportunities for photos. Lucky will have a yard to poop in. We'll live a few short blocks from a Dunkin Donuts. I'll have to leave ten minutes earlier for work every day. I'll have a driveway to wash my car in for the first time in 8 years instead of having to take it to a car wash. I'm trying to look at it all in a positive light.

Hopefully this move will not be a living hell. And Ridgepointe, I'll miss you. There will never be another one quite like you.

Ridgepointe, I'll never forget you.
Unless I suffer from amnesia
resulting from a brain
aneurism caused by
a head injury that occurred
when I fell down the stairs
moving my furniture out.

The Ken Carr / Cakes For Causes calendar goes on sale soon

I'm a calendar cover model!

I think it's even more remarkable that I'm on a calendar and I didn't have to get naked. If I was ever on a calendar like that with no clothes on, it would have the world record for poorest selling calendar of all time.

This calendar is the 2015 Cakes For Causes calendar, and they were kind enough to ask me to pose for a photo that ended up on the front. I have done some remarkable and interesting things in my career, and this is certainly a big highlight for me.

The calendar will be $22 and available starting next week. The proceeds benefit Cakes for Causes, which is a non-profit organization in Tucson that uses the money they raise to make baked goods for other non-profit organizations events. The baking is done with volunteers, all monies raised are for the ingredients.

I'll post a link soon so you can purchase one if you want my face for a dart throwing target, or more importantly to help out a great Tucson non-profit group.  You could also use the calendar for the recipes and an even crazier idea, to keep track of what day it is.

Here's a look at the finished calendar with the (clothed) cover model.

Cakes for Causes 2015 calendar
featuring Ken Carr, cover model
extraordinaire.

Buster the bee

Here's Buster, a dog up for adoption from the Humane Society Of Southern Arizona.

He was adorable and very energetic. After I came home from work, Lucky sniffed me thoroughly. He apparently smelled the slobber that Buster put all over me.

My co-worker grabbed my camera and shot a photo of me having a friendly moment with Buster. I thought both of our facial expressions were amusing, so I'm posting the photo.

The segment on the TV show was about Halloween and dogs, and Buster was wearing a bee costume for canines.

Super cute!

Buster and I competing for
stupidest facial expression.
I think I won.

Buster is a bee!
Bzzzzzzz.

What happens during commercial breaks

Here's what happens during commercial breaks on the TV show.

Tweet Tweet Tweet

Naughty naughty gourds

We had a pumpkin farm on today's TV show.

They brought along a few gourds. They had a bit of a phallic appearance.

I held back with inappropriate humor at work (except I did sneak a couple of photos to post here).

This gourd could star
in it's own adult movie.

Pornographic?
How about gourdographic.

Anthony doesn't want women's vitamins

Anthony and I had our usual Sunday shenanigans: Dinner and grocery shopping. I prefer not to think of us as boring, but consistent.

Dinner was at Beyond Bread at Speedway and Wilmot. It's a restaurant that specializes in it's bread and sandwiches made with the bread.

I have eaten there before and the food wrecks my stomach. I try things that are on the menu and I have trouble digesting the food. I need to ask them to just make me a pretty plain sandwich on boring white bread. I'm not sure they make good ol' white bread though.

We went on our usual grocery shopping trip to Walmart Market afterward.

It was a rainy Sunday, kind of unusual for October. Fortunately it had stopped by the time we went out.

Beyond Bread at Speedway and Wilmot.
We ate in a restaurant with people in it.
It's a freakin' miracle.

The turkey cranberry sandwich
with cranberry nut bread
that murdered my digestive system.
I'm KENsitive you know.

Anthony's sandwich.
He got his with weeds on it.

Look how happy Anthony is
to be having dinner with ol' Ken.

Stormy Sunday in Tucson

Random car in the Beyond Bread parking lot
that had a cactus throwing away garbage.
I didn't know cactus were so
environmentally conscious.

I tried to help Anthony shop for vitamins
at Walmart Neighborhood Market.
It turned out he didn't need any
One A Day women's active metabolism vitamins.
I tried to be helpful.

Moving the Ken Carr World Headquarters

I think I'm suffering from insanity. I've agreed to move to a house.

Anthony's mom is moving to a condo and offered to rent us her four bedroom, two bath house a few miles west of the apartment in Tucson that we currently occupy. Its a good deal as far as rent -- about a third less than we pay now.

The insanity kicks in because moving is difficult. Moving with Anthony is even more difficult because he's kind of a control freak. There is only one way it has to proceed and if I deviate from that it causes conflict. It doesn't make him a bad person by any means, it's just how it is. I have resisted moving since he and I moved in together in December 2010 because it was difficult then. But, I have caved and am giving it a try.

I know there are benefits. Big yard for Lucky to run around in, tons more space in the house.

There are already oddities -- dishwasher apparently doesn't work, swamp cooling, the closets in the master bedroom are pink.

I'm going to attempt to do it the same way I have every time I've moved: Not taking time off work. Not taking time off has become a personal challenge -- I haven't had to take a sick day or vacation day since 2010. I'm at the point where I'm wondering how long I can go before I have to. Nobody at work has ever noticed or they'd probably make me. We don't have to be out of our current place until end of December so I have plenty of evenings and weekends to get it all done.

We'll be starting the process in a few days. Let the insanity begin.

The soon to be new location
of the Ken Carr World Headquarters

Eating on TV

My secret with the show hosts is out: I find it amusing to take pictures of them eating on TV.

My picture shooting style has something to do with it. I like to take action pictures. I challenge myself to take tougher shots and the moment that someone is taking a bite of food is kind of difficult. There is something about it that is very candid and real life.

We had a segment today with an olive oil store that did some cooking on the show. It was my chance to shoot photos of the food tasting. They also sampled sliders and desserts from a local restaurant in another segment.

The hosts know that I do this and now they make it more dramatic to make me happy.

I vote yes.

Om nom nom.

She thought she could sneak a gulp
of coffee in when the camera was
on the guest.
Nothing gets past me with my camera in hand.

Photos of eating excite me.

Lunch at Dakota Cafe in Trail Dust Town

I don't like eating. I never have. I do it because apparently I'd die if I didn't. (never tried not eating as an experiment, but the info I have seems pretty reliable that I wouldn't survive).

I usually bring my lunch with me to work. I generally eat the same thing each day because it's fast (I can eat at my desk in less than ten minutes while still getting work done) and doesn't upset my stomach too much. I rarely leave the station or take a lunch hour. I've done this ever since I became a TV producer.

Today I went with a few co-workers to have lunch at the Dakota Café at Trail Dust Town on Tanque Verde. Trail Dust Town is like a little old west town with shops and a couple of restaurants. It even has a little choo-choo train that runs some evenings around the property.

It was a nice lunch. The company I was with was fun and I took some pictures. I have a stomach ache from the food (not the food's fault, I'm a freak) but it was a nice change of pace. The food at Dakota Café is fantastic, I highly recommend.

Tina and Alex in the front seat.
I played back seat driver.

Andy got the privilege of sitting
next to me in the back seat.

This sign in the trunk of Tina's car
explains how you stow three golf bags
in the rear of the BMW.
Apparently BMW drivers are golfers
although the same principle could
be used to stack dead bodies.

Walking behind Tina, Andy and Alex
in Trail Dust Town.

This is where you purchase generals.

A peek inside the steak house
at Trail Dust Town.
Don't wear a tie in here, they cut it off.

Alex is wearing the same color shirt
that John Wayne did when he wore that suit
in the movie "Big Jake"

The demise of the telephone booth...
it now houses an ATM.

Festive colored tortilla chips
at Dakota Café.

Tina and Andy look like they
are thrilled to have lunch with Ken Carr.

Interior of Dakota Café
as seen from our table.

Art work hanging above our table at Dakota Café.
This is called "Tucson Night"
and was for sale for about $500.

Another piece of artwork for sale.
This would be amazing with
the right drugs in your system.

Delicious!
Smokehouse BBQ burger with fries
at Dakota Café.